Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Call for shutdown of Trump site

The day after a crane accident at the Trump SoHo complex killed one worker and injured three others, some city officials and neighborhood groups said the project should have been shut down completely after a spate of safety violations in recent months.

"When a building has a major violation, it has to be resolved quickly," said Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer, noting that the Building Department hearing on October crane safety violations is scheduled for next week.

"We close down restaurants for fruit fly violations quicker than we shut down potentially dangerous construction sites," Stringer said.

Building officials say that every hearing for previous violations related to the Trump SoHo project were scheduled within 90 days, as is the agency's general practice. The project has been shut down by the city four times since September, but never for more than nine days, according to city building records.

The Trump SoHo project, first announced on his reality TV show "The Apprentice" in 2006, has been opposed by preservationists and neighborhood groups, which have complained the building was going up too fast and using unsafe construction practices.

Wooden supports bracing the top floors of Donald Trump's SoHo condo tower failed to meet standards and broke while concrete was being poured - leading to Monday's fatal collapse, city sources said Tuesday.

Forensic engineers for the city Buildings Department determined the wooden forms, built to hold concrete until it hardens, did not meet "industry standards," the sources said.

6 comments:

Anonymous
said...

A high profile development such as this one bring attention to all building development very large or very small. The end result of any development could be tragic and unfortunately in this case quite tragic to the family of the individual whom was killed because of the work did conform to code or has outstanding code violations. The laws governing any construction site should be changed to stopping all work if single violation is outstanding until it is cleared up - there should be a 3 week waiting period before work can be resumed after clearing the violation. Any deveopment found continuing to work on site during the violation outstanding would be cause to shut down construction for 3 months. Development shutdown for long periods hit developers squarely at their bottomline. In the case of small residential construction, regulations should be imposed to protect neighboring dwellings and pedestrians to insure the saftey and protection from harm. A plan must be filed in advance with a large cash bond to be forefited upon receiving a violation. Slow the developer, make the stakes much higher as to what he may lose if the site is developed unsafely. It's too latre for the individual whom lost his/her life and sincerly hope the family goes after the developer for the value of the property.

the problem of course is - make the rules TOO strick, and no one will build anything, or REPAIR anything (more important) in NYC. Hey, the parapit is falling of that building - fine - I don't pay my property taxes for a couple of years, and let the city take the building, while I move to someplace more friendly to construction and business

"Building officials say that every hearing for previous violations related to the Trump SoHo project were scheduled within 90 days, as is the agency's general practice. The project has been shut down by the city four times since September, but never for more than nine days, according to city building records."

Why is it the "general practice" to schedule a hearing 90 days after the violation?

Meat processors have federal inspectors on site 24/7. Why hasn't DOB sent full-time inspectors to every building site?

The inspector must be authorized to immediately shut down a site for violations, and remain until the violation is resolved.

To increase the integrity of inspectors, site assignments must be made daily.

Elevate dangerous violations to felonies. Make inspectors criminally liable for violations not caught.

Trump Soho needs to be torn down, or, at the very least, scaled way back. If this building is not torn down or scaled back, the people in the community are going to go balistic. Get ready Bloomberg and city hall!

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